A motorcycle turns with the vehicle body leaning to the road surface, unlike a four-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle tire accordingly has the property that the crown portion of the tread has a semicircular edge shape whose curvature is greater than that of a four-wheeled vehicle tire, and the center portion of the tread comes into contact with the ground during straight running and the end portion of the tread comes into contact with the ground during turning. Such motorcycles have been subject to various improvements to enhance steering stability during straight running or turning.
For example, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 discloses a motorcycle tire in which the width of a spiral belt layer formed by winding a reinforcing member in parallel with the tire equatorial plane is 0.5 to 0.8 times the tread width, and the average value of the total tire thickness in the area where the belt layer is formed is smaller than that in the area where the belt layer is not formed. This tire has a larger footprint area of the tread during turning than conventional tires and also has a reduced difference in rigidity of the tread surface, in order to improve traction performance when accelerating from deep cornering during which the vehicle body is significantly leaned and stability when leaning the vehicle body.